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Dear all

A while ago I bought two langyao pieces as a single lot. The yuhuchunping vase I assumed to be 19th century due to the chipped base. The accompanying zou vase, however, I assumed to be modern.

http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/jlim2397/library/Zou%20Vase?sort=3&page=1

Only recently have I begun to suspect that the zou vase might be 19th century too. The crackled glaze inside the foot is identical to that on the yuhuchunping vase, and the lack of chipping is perhaps not as crucial as I initially thought.

Can anyone comment on this vase? Might it be 19th century?

I'll have to confess ignorance as to what a "Zou" vase might be, but the small hu-shaped one you show with apparent elephant handles looks to be pretty standard late 20th century fare from the Shiwan Kilns at Guangzhou. I used to have a larger, 14-inch, elephant handle vase from Shiwan in a red flambé glaze. The picture shown here, from an earlier unsuccessful eBay listing, is the only one I can find at the moment to share.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you Bill for this and your other recent posts, they are very helpful. I thought this shape was called "zou" or perhaps "zun" as it lacks the squarish profile of the hu.

Does your response mean that I ought to treat the associated yuhuchunping vase as also modern?

http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/jlim2397/library/Langyao%20Vases?sort=2&page=1

I have always been under the impression that this sort of "cracked-off" base was typical of c. 1880s iron red porcelain (for example in A Allen's books). That is, the red glaze flowed on to the underlying sagger and was crudely broken off and roughly squared with a hammer or similar.

I was also under the impression that, after c. the 1880s, the family that specialised in Langyao went extinct, and the secret of this form of Langyao was lost for a couple of decades.

The greyish crackle-glaze within the foot is very similar in both vases. Therefore, if the Hu vase is modern, I would have to come to a similar conclusion re the Yuhuchunping.

Rgds
JLim

You might want to judge for yourself. Here are two auctions where bidders failed to show for vases pretty much like yours, one lot claimed to be 19th century and the other post-Qing. I can't imagine Mainland China bidders not taking a peck at them if they thought either had any age to it.

Best regards,

Bill H.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/30909606_procelain

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/30124878_19th-c-chinese-sang-de-beouf-glaze-elephants-vase

Thanks again Bill.

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